Irish premier Leo Varadkar has ruled out reopening negotiations around the Irish backstop.
The Taoiseach said it was not possible to reopen any aspect of the Withdrawal Agreement without reopening all aspects of it.
READ MORE: Theresa May pulls Brexit vote to avoid Commons humiliation
The Fine Gael leader said he spoke to Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday about her progress in securing support for the draft agreement, however he refused to give further details about what the two leaders discussed.
"The Withdrawal Agreement, including the Irish backstop, is the only agreement on the table," he said.
"It took over a year-and-a-half to negotiate and has the support of 28 governments and it's not possible to reopen any aspect of that agreement without reopening all aspects of it.
"The purpose of that phone call was to update me on the progress she (Mrs May) is making in trying to secure ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons and also to think ahead as to how we handle the EU summit which is happening later in the week."
Speaking at an event where he unveiled more than 75 million euro for 27 projects under the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund, Mr Varadkar said the EU has made a lot of concessions through the negotiation process including the recent review clause.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon calls on Labour to lodge vote of no confidence in Theresa May's government
He added: "We should never forget how we got to this point, the UK decided to leave the EU and the UK Government decided to take lots of options off the table, whether it was staying in the single market and the customs union or Northern Ireland specific backstop.
"We ended up with the backstop in this Withdrawal Agreement because of the red lines the UK laid down along the way."
He added that the agreement has the backing of the 28 member states.
"I have no difficulty with statements that clarify what is in the Withdrawal Agreement but no statement of clarification can contradict what is in the Withdrawal Agreement," he continued.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel